Protective rain chaps which fit over the regular clothes of a wearer to protect the latter during activities such as loading and unloading trucks, walking through undergrowth, and riding motorcycles or bicycles are known in the art. U.S. Pat. No. 4,110,845 issued to Chellis discloses a set of rain chaps supported by means of straps to a belt around the waist and fastened around each leg along a longitudinal seam by snap fasteners. Enclosing the legs entirely necessarily reduces freedom of movement. Chellis provides little protection to the hip area.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,266,299 issued May 12, 1981 to Beal discloses a protective garment that includes leg coverings that cover the front of the thighs and fasten around the knee. No protection is provided for the legs below the knees.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,458,353 issued to Harvey on July 10, 1984 discloses a rain garment to protect the front of the legs of a cyclist consisting of two leg coverings with elastic down each longitudinal edge extending from foot inserts to a waist band. A single strap around the back over the upper portion of each thigh serves to hold the leg portions in place. A single interior apron covers an open area between the leggings from the waist to the crotch. Utilizing foot inserts creates the disadvantage of limiting the amount of walking possible without wearing out and unduly soiling the inserts Moreover, a single loose apron flap inadequately protects the crotch area due to the tendency of the apron to move with movement of the wearer. Finally utilizing only a single strap allows the knee portion of the garment to easily become dislodged.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,506,391 issued on Mar. 26, 1985 to Rodman discloses a set of chaps consisting of two leg enclosing portions and two upper portions or overlapping flaps for protecting the front area below the waist. A longitudinal zipper is used to attach and remove the leg enclosing portions. Each flap is held in place by a respective pocket at a top of an associated leg portion. Overlap of the flaps is accomplished by a sideways projecting section of one flap extending over to the other. Thus, the flap material must be reasonably rigid otherwise the projecting section would simply hang down and not serve its protective function. The preferred material is stated as being heavy leather.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,665,562 issued on May 19, 1987 to Winer discloses a leg protector consisting of a rectangular main section for enclosing the calf and ankle of a wearer and a pair of spaced apart straps with a hooked material on one set of upper and lower straps and a corresponding napped material on the other set for detachably engaging associated hooked material.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,981,026 issued on Sept. 21, 1976 to Reverberi discloses a waterproof garment consisting of an assembly of preformed, permanent, parallel folds. When the garment is folded it forms into a belt-like shape that can be worn around the waist of a user. The garment is folded up to a pair of parallel set of snaps and then the snaps on one side are snapped onto the snaps of the other. Otherwise the garments are like regular clothing.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide an improved set of rain chaps. It is a further object of the invention to provide a set of rain chaps which can be readily attached, detached and stored on the wearer. It is yet a further object of the invention to provide a set of rain chaps that provide improved protection to the wearer in combination with greater freedom of movement.